Weird modprobe problems

Hi

I have a problem with modprobe on one computer. Due to some unidentified problem with modprobe I'm having a lot of problems upgrading a computer to linux 2.6.15 smp.

When installing the debian kernel and booting I got loads of messages complaining about "Unknown symbol journal_xxx". For some reason the initrd didn't load the jbd module needed by ext3.

After a lot of searching and rebooting (one feels almost like an MSCE by now :-) I found out that mkinitramfs uses modprobe to figure out what depends on want.

Mkinitramfs does a

modprobe --set-version=2.6.15-1-686-smp --show-depends jbd

which on my system gives:

install /bin/true

Comparing with other systems (with other versions) I get output like:

insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko

For ext3 I get:

insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
install /bin/true
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko

which should be

insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko

As a consequence I get an unusable initrd file because a lot of needed modules are missing. I have only identified jbd, but there are certainly other missing too. I have compared the contents of different initrd files and the ones on the problematic system are much too small.

I have tested this on three systems: a Soltek Qbic system with problems (2.6.15-1-686-smp and 2.6.15-1-686), an Asus M2N laptop (2.6.15-1-686) and a HP Proliant server (2.6.12-1-686-smp), both without problems.

Modprobe only misbehaves on the Soltec Qbic system.

Besides the different kernel versions they are very much alike. All run Etch (testing) and have

# dpkg -l module-init-tools
ii module-init-to 3.2.2-1 tools for managing Linux kernel modules

I have uninstalled modutils from all systems.

Its late now and I want to sleep, but until now I have been unable to find out why modprobe on the Qbic doesn't work.

I have looked in the files in /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/modules.* and they have the same lines for the modules I tested. The correct dependencies are there on all systems.

I was unable to install 2.6.15-1-686-smp or 2.6.15-1-686 on the Qbic because mkinitramfs was unable to create a bootable initrd file. In the end I installed the -smb kernel on my laptop and copied the initrd file over with scp, and the Qbic could boot. I cannot, however, upgrade the kernel now without resorting to similar tricks.

I haven't reported any bugs, because I haven't got a clue about whats wrong, except the symptoms described above. There is probably something misconfigured on the Qbic since the others don't have problems, but what?

A bit of help would be very much appreciated.

--
René Seindal (rene@xxxxxxxxxx) http://linux.seindal.dk/

Relevant Pages

  • Re: 8139too Module
    ... > modprobe simple reports that it cannot find the module. ... I'm unsure as to how to go about compiling this is ... > introducing it into my kernel. ... > to install a kernel module, you must switch to root, then type: ...
    (Debian-User)
  • RE: 8139too Module
    ... > modprobe simple reports that it cannot find the module. ... I'm unsure as to how to go about compiling this is ... > introducing it into my kernel. ... > to install a kernel module, you must switch to root, then type: ...
    (Debian-User)
  • Re: Weird modprobe problems
    ... install jbd /bin/true ... Anyway, these lines were taken into account when building the initrd file, so several necessary modules were left out, resulting in an unusable initrd file. ... Due to some unidentified problem with modprobe I'm having a lot of problems upgrading a computer to linux 2.6.15 smp. ... For some reason the initrd didn't load the jbd module needed by ext3. ...
    (Debian-User)
  • Re: [OT?] Question about Linux AtariSIO
    ... > missing my kernel headers, as Mandrake/Mandriva doesn't install them by ... When you do "make install" the atarisio.o / atarisio.ko module should ... You could also try to do a "modprobe -v atarisio", ...
    (comp.sys.atari.8bit)
  • [PATCH] Remove modules.txt
    ... in the kconfig help message, README, makefile.txt or the modprobe manual ... -are using is the most up to date one for this kernel. ... This option can be selected during "make *config", ... -This will install the modules in the directory /frodo/lib/modules. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)